Lord Advocate and US Attorney General begin pursuit of new Lockerbie suspects

Two new Libyan suspects have been identified by prosecutors in Scotland and the US over the 1998 Lockerbie bombing.

Scotland’s Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC has issued a formal international letter request to the Libyan Attorney General asking to interview the suspects.

Officials in Scotland as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US have been pursuing suspects involved in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which resulted in the deaths of 270 passengers - including three Irish citizens - as well as crew and people on the ground in Lockerbie.

While the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) would not name the new suspects, they are thought to be Nasser Ali Ashour, an intelligence officer who gave the IRA weapons and explosives in the 1980s, and Muammar Gaddafi’s brother-in-lawAbdullah al-Senussi, who is currently on death row in Libya.

Another man, Abu Agila Mas’ud, has been identified as the maker of the bomb and a suspect by documentary film-maker Ken Dorstein – an American whose brother died in the bombing.

The original indictment against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the bombing, named Mr Mas’ud in 1999.

Mr al-Megrahi died in 2012 after his release from prison was ordered by then Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds in 2009.

A Crown Office spokesman said: “The Lord Advocate and the US Attorney General have recently agreed that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and US investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.

“The Lord Advocate has therefore, issued an International Letter of Request to the Libyan Attorney General in Tripoli which identifies the two Libyans as suspects in the bombing of flight Pan Am 103.

“The Lord Advocate and the US Attorney General are seeking the assistance of the Libyan judicial authorities for Scottish police officers and the FBI to interview the two named suspects in Tripoli.

“The two individuals are suspected of involvement, along with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, in the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 in December 1988 and the murder of 270 people.”

The Lord Advocate recently met the US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, in Washington, D.C., to review the progress which has been made in the ongoing investigation.

The Letter of Request has been issued under the treaty between the UK and Libya on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

There is no similar treaty between the US and Libya.